However, my impression is that the spec ed teachers/philosophy is pretty firmly wedded to the accommodation model, which is fine where the disability cannot be ameliorated – blindness, deafness, paralysis, missing limbs etc. but not really appropriate for specific LDs. I’ve read, and been told by parents, that many spec ed teachers simply give kids answers but don’t teach them coping strategies. That was certainly true of a dyslexic relative, whose parents had to send her to an outside professional for several years, but who taught her to cope well enough that she had no IEP for the rest of her academic career (she just graduated from college).

I will also say that I retired early because kids are much harder to teach today. I spent 19 years as a math teacher (sped, regular ed, gifted ed) in high-poverty and/or gang-affiliated middle and high schools. My last nine years were in middle income and mostly white schools because I was placed there as a principal. (As a fish out of water, I asked the supt. why he put me in first school and he said, “You’ll find out.”) The sense of entitlement, disrespect, and willingness to cheat in order to be in the top 10% for scholarships was unbelievable. The parental expectation for acquiescence to their child’s demands shocked me. (Of course, I was used to few parents being involved in their child’s education.) I had toughened during my previous 19 years and the supt thought that would help me stand my ground. I did, but it was exhausting.

I found that working with my tough kids in the 1980′s and 1990′s was far more rewarding than working with my more affluent students.Our cultural degradation is serious, all the way into early grades today, in all “subgroups” of students. My frustration is with the adults who have created this situation, not with the kids.